Daphnis could not in justice find fault with what she said; but, as needy lovers generally do, he burst into tears; and again invoked the assistance of the Nymphs.
As he slept at night, they again appeared to him in the same dress and form, as they had done before, and the eldest of them thus addressed him.
"Chloe's marriage is under the superintendence of another deity: as for yourself we will furnish you with gifts which shall soften Dryas, and win his consent. The boat belonging to the young men of Methymna, whose vine-branch cable your goats devoured, was that same day carried far out to sea by the violence of the wind: at night the gale blowing from the sea, it was driven towards the land and dashed upon some rocks, there it was wrecked and everything in it lost. A purse of three thousand drachmas[17] was thrown ashore, and lies covered with seaweed near a dead dolphin, the putrid stench of which is so offensive that no one will approach it but hastens by as fast as he can. Go, take this money, and offer it to Dryas. It is enough at present to make you appear not absolutely poor; the time will come, when you will be very rich."
After speaking to this effect, they disappeared, and with them the darkness of the night; day dawned, and Daphnis leaping from his bed with joy, drove his goats to pasture with boisterous eagerness. After kissing Chloe, and paying his adorations in the grotto, he went down to the sea, pretending that it was his intention to bathe, and then walked along the sands close to the beach, seeking the three thousand drachmas. The search required little labour: the dolphin lay rotting in his path, and yielding a "most ancient and fish-like smell," which served to guide him on his way. He immediately approached it, and upon removing the weeds found the purse full of silver, which he put into his scrip; but before quitting the spot he uttered blessings upon the Nymphs and upon the ocean likewise; for although a shepherd he now thought the sea more delightful than the land, since it contributed to promote his marriage with Chloe.
Having got possession of this sum, he thought himself not merely richer than his neighbours, but the richest man upon the earth, and immediately hastened to Chloe, related his dream to her, shewed her the purse, and desired her to tend the herds till he came back: then, hurrying with all speed to Dryas, whom he found with Nape busied in beating out corn upon the threshing floor, he boldly entered upon the subject of the marriage.
"Give me Chloe for a wife. I can play well on the pipe; I can prune vines; I can plant; I can plough; and I can winnow. To my skill as a herdsman Chloe can bear witness: fifty she-goats were given to my charge, and their number is now doubled. Formerly we used to send our females to a neighbour's males; but now I have reared large and handsome he-goats of our own. I am young; and, as I have been your neighbour, you know me to have a blameless character. A goat, moreover, nursed me, as a ewe did Chloe. Being on so many points superior to other suitors, you will not find me their inferior in my gifts. They will offer their goats and their sheep, or a yoke of mangy oxen, or corn not fit to feed even dunghill fowls! I will give you three thousand drachmas!—only let no one know what I have offered—not even Lamon, my father!" So saying, he presented the money and threw his arms round the neck of Dryas.
Dryas and Nape were surprised at the sight of so much money, and not only promised to give Chloe in marriage, but also undertook to procure Lamon's consent to the match. Nape remained with Daphnis, and drove the oxen round the floor, while by means of the threshing-machine,[18] she separated the grains. Dryas, in the meantime, laid by the money carefully, in the place where the tokens were stored up, and hastened to Lamon's house upon the novel errand of asking[19] a husband for his daughter. He found Lamon and Myrtale measuring some barley, which had been just winnowed, and in very bad spirits at finding it yield little more than the seed which had been put into the ground, and endeavoured to console them by saying, that this season the complaint was general. He then asked Daphnis in marriage for Chloe. "Others," said he, "would willingly make me handsome presents, I however will accept nothing from you, but, on the contrary, will give you of my own substance. The two young people have been brought up together, and from feeding their flocks in company they have contracted a mutual fondness which cannot easily be dissolved, and they are now of sufficient age to consummate a marriage."
These and many more arguments he urged with all the eloquence of one who had received three thousand drachmas for his guerdon. Lamon was no longer able to plead his poverty, since Dryas entertained no objections upon that head; nor could he object to the age of Daphnis, for he was by this time a young man; but even now he did not explain the real cause of his unwillingness, which was, that Daphnis was of too good birth for such a match.
After remaining sometime silent he replied as follows. "You act justly, Dryas, in preferring your neighbours before strangers, and in not thinking wealth superior to honest poverty. May Pan and the Nymphs reward you with their friendship for this! I myself am eager for the marriage: I who am halfway on the road to old age, and begin to feel the want of assistance on my farm, should indeed be crazy, were I to refuse a connection with your family; this in itself would be a great advantage, and Chloe, too, is most desirable on account of her beauty, youth, and goodness. At the same time you must consider that I am only a serf on this estate:[20] I am owner of nothing here: it is necessary that my master should be acquainted with the business, and that we should have his consent. Suppose, then, that we defer the marriage till the autumn: persons from the city have informed me, that he intends coming hither at that time. They shall then be man and wife; for the present let them love each other like brother and sister. I will only farther say, friend Dryas, that you are seeking as son-in-law one who is superior to us all." He added no more, but embraced Dryas, and handed him some drink, it being mid-day and very hot, and wishing to shew him every mark of kindness, accompanied him part of his way home.
The last expression of Lamon was not lost upon Dryas, but as he went along he thought within himself,—"Who can Daphnis be? He was suckled by a she-goat, as if under the providential care of the deities themselves; he is very handsome, and bears no resemblance to the flat-nosed Lamon, or the bald-headed Myrtale; he is master, also, of three thousand drachmas,—few goatherds can call so many pears their own! Was he exposed by the same person who exposed Chloe? Did Lamon find him, as I found her? were tokens left with him like those which I found? If, Ο Pan, and ye Nymphs, it be so, whensoever he finds his own relatives, he may throw some light upon the secret history of Chloe also!"